Neri Marcorè: “The beauty of living light”

To understand how Zen it is Neri Marcorè you should listen to the audio of our interview on the phone: Neri was on the train towards Milan, the line fell more times than he can remember, but Marcorè always replied with a nineteenth-century aplomb, without losing his temper even when he realized that having to repeat the answer he had just finished articulating because I couldn’t hear it. Calm, for Neri Marcorè, is a not indifferent constant, and it is for this reason that for the role of Enzo Baroni Il Santone – # lepiùbellefrasidiOscio, the new series that sees him protagonist on RaiPlay starting from February 25th, it seems that it has not required for him who knows what effort. Sure, in the Santone wears a white tunic and a pair of sandals and gives maxims like “what does not kill you, still breaks them cojoni“, But to hear him so seraphic and so imperturbable – he, who in his career has delighted in doing everything, from imitations to auteur cinema, from television to theater, and who would have many reasons to be stressed out – is a comfort that warms the heart.

From The Santone to the film I change everythingit seems clear to me that everyone is seeing her as a dispenser of Zen philosophy.
“Evidently they give off signals that lead to this type of communication, even if the two characters have some differences. In I change everything we are talking about a holistic consultant, while in the Santone of an antenna player who finds himself, in spite of himself, being received as someone special, with a holy aura and powers that can change the surrounding environment. Enzo Baroni is completely unaware, then he loses his memory due to a very strong stress and due to a fall in a hole, and changes completely. Before he was colorless, almost invisible, while now he is perceived in a holy way: changing perspective can really change our life, exercising that detachment from things that makes us live a little better ».

Are you also detached from things?
“There are phases of life in which it counts to reach certain goals and others in which you begin to appreciate more traveling light, enjoying the time available. At a certain point in my life I realized that looking at things with irony and lightness would help me to face them better, and so it was ».

I am reminded of the last scene of that wonderful film by Pupi Avati that is The heart elsewhere, when his character sings Aluette not caring about the love beating just suffered.
“Even though he was in tremendous pain from this missed love that he couldn’t develop, he was still happy to have had that opportunity. When he has been recognized by his beloved, he considers that goal as an absolute goal, which leads him to look at the glass half full ».

Is the glass half full looking at it too?
“I try to see more of what I have than what I have lost.”

At some point in the Santone, Oscio says that «what doesn’t kill you, breaks them cojoni». Do you share?
“If something does you harm, it certainly doesn’t please you. I don’t recognize myself in form, but in substance I do ».

What does “li cojoni” break for you?
«The desire to argue with the wrong objective. Today there is a hyper-correctness and a hypersensitivity that are the opposite of irony and taking oneself seriously: this bothers me, together with the parties taken and maintaining an alleged coherence in order to remain in one’s position. We should be more malleable towards the opinions of others and ready to revise their own. In general, there is little tendency to listen: one speaks either to win or to be right, and never as an opportunity to broaden one’s horizons ».

The most fertile ground for these controversies are social media, but I see that he frequents them very little: on Instagram he has only 3 posts.
“I’m not one of those who just thinks something rushes to write it, not to mention that Instagram, at a certain point, had even stolen it from me. I do not demonize social media, for me they have nothing bad or good: they are simply containers that, like TV, can contain excellent or poor programs. It always depends on the use made of it ».

Many young actors use them for self-production: what do you think?
“That I am grateful for being born in the analogue era and for having an age where I can afford to go on without being able to do without it. After 30 years of profession, I think people have become loyal: if I had to resort to social media at all costs, I would feel like a seller. If I had done it in my life, I would have found myself very badly ».